Make New York Post a Preferred Source A mother and son who were hospitalized with serious injuries after the deadly Brooklyn building collapse had moved in to the doomed apartment less than two weeks before the catastrophe.
Leidy Álvarez, 31, told The Post from her bed at Kings Hospital on Saturday that she, her husband Anderson and her two little boys Pablo, 9, and Joseph, 3, were still settling into their second-floor home at 1321 Flatbush Ave. when the building’s facade caved in Wednesday around 4 p.m.
“We had been there for a week and a half,” she said softly with medical cloth wrapped around her face as she lay down.
“We had managed to get [the apartment], and I said that we would buy the furniture either this week or next. Anderson had bought a rug so that Joseph could play comfortably. We were very happy.”
Álvarez, who is from Colombia, said Anderson wasn’t home during the collapse that killed eight people — including two kids — and injured 18 others.
Shocking footage from Álvarez’s living room captured the moment she, Pablo and Joseph were slammed with falling debris.
“I asked my son Pablo to grab the baby bottle and the milk so I could feed Joseph, and that’s when everything happened. I don’t remember anything else,” she recalled.
Álvarez had been on a video call as the building crumbled.
“They saw everything collapse,” she said. “They said, ‘What happened? Hang up and call Anderson!’ Because they could hear Joseph and Pablo crying in the background.
“Anderson told me that when I called him, the house had already collapsed. I began screaming and begging for help for my children, but I don’t remember that. The only thing I recall is being in the ambulance before losing consciousness again with Pablo on my left, covered in blood, and Joseph on my right.”
She said Joseph was fortunately unscathed when the building caved in, but Pablo suffered a severe head injury. He remains in the intensive care unit, but is stable.
“He is out of danger, but he is very swollen. His skull was opened. He is improving. We hope everything turns out well,” Álvarez said.
Álvarez herself sustained back injuries, a broken collar bone and four rib fractures. She is also suffering from headaches.
Álvarez was good friends with Juan Daniel Salvada Guzman, 31, who died along with his daughter Daniela Salvada Rodriquez, 9, and her cousin, Kevin Santiago Reyes Gonzales, 10. They knew each other for three years.
The last time she saw Guzman, who is also a Colombian native, was on Monday or Tuesday when he painted her apartment door.
She told him, “I’ll pay you with an ‘arepa,’ with an egg and a glass of water—and have a seat on the floor because we have nowhere else to sit,” she recalled with fragile laughter.
“He would go without food himself just to provide for someone else. [His wife] Estefania is the same. It is all so very sad.”
Residents Mamadou Barry, 23, and Mamadou Ndiaye, 31, of Guinea — who were cousins and roommates in the apartment — were also killed.
Three construction workers at the neighboring site at 2625 Bedford Ave. were also killed in the collapse: Gabriel Siguencia, 22, of Ecuador; Edgar Sapón Gutierrez, 26, of Guatemala; and José Luis Caguana Cosquillo, 26, of Ecuador.
“We’re looking into why the contractor had them working,” Kayla Chamborazado, Siguencia’s stepsister, told The Post.
“They weren’t supposed to be working on that building. It looks like that building had a lot of violations. We’re very confused as to why the construction was ongoing.”
Excavation work at a neighboring site is being eyed as a potential cause for the collapse after an anonymous tip to the Department of Buildings alleged contractors were digging too close to the doomed apartments.
The city signed off on deep excavation plans for the construction site that likely caused the collapse — even though it lacked key structural support, The Post previously reported.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office has launched a criminal probe alongside the Department of Buildings and the Department of Investigation. The city is still determining who is at fault.
“I think we’re in shock right now,” Álvarez said of the survivors. “We don’t understand what’s going on. It feels like a dream — a nightmare.”
